Machine Vision and Machine Learning for Plant Phenotyping and Precision Agriculture

Book excerpt: Plant phenotyping (PP) describes the physiological and biochemical properties of plants affected by both genotypes and environments. It is an emerging research field that is assisting the breeding and cultivation of new crop varieties to be more productive and resilient to challenging environments. Precision agriculture (PA) uses sensing technologies to observe crops and then manage them optimally to ensure that they grow in healthy conditions, have maximum productivity, and have minimal negative effects on the environment. Traditionally, the observation of plant traits heavily relies on human experts which is labor intensive, time-consuming, and subjective. Automatic crop traits measurement in PP and PA are two different fields, but they share the same sensing and data processing technologies in many respects. Recently, driven by computer and sensor technologies, machine vision (MV) and machine learning (ML) have contributed to accurate, high-throughput, and nondestructive plant phenotyping and precision agriculture. However, these technologies are still in their infant stage and there are many challenges and questions related to them that still need to be addressed. The goal of this Research Topic is to provide a platform to share the latest research results on the application of MV and ML for PP and PA. It aims to highlight cutting-edge technologies, bottle-necks, and future research directions for MV and ML in crop breeding, crop cultivation, disease management, weed control, and pest control.